US Politics: Donnie and the Mystery of the Anonymous Op-Ed

[Fragile Bird]

I have on several occasions mentioned that demented NRA spokeswoman, Loesch, or whatever her name is, the one who defended the NRA to the Parkland kids. But now she’s involved in something truly bizarre, and downright weird, even for the NRA.

Someone at the NRA has become incensed at the idea that the children’s program, Thomas the Tank Engine, has decided to expand it’s list of characters by adding not only females but a Nigerian train.

The reaction of the NRA?

I shit you not - they produced a scene with engines with KKK hoods on.

I took a bit of a break from this thread topic because I watched the crazy town crap going down, but WTF, the US has gone effing nuts beyond the pale.

For those of you who think once you get rid of Trump the rest of the world will go back treating you they way things were before Trump, guess again. 

[DMC]

1 hour ago, Martell Spy said:

FiveThirtyEight’s Forecast Shows Very Tight Battle for the Senate

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/09/fivethirtyeight-forecast-shows-tight-battle-for-the-senate.html

I think statistical models for the House are worthwhile, but this is where 538 has no use.  What you quoted could have been written a year ago by any avid observer.  There's no quantitative method that can beat gut feeling when it comes to the handful of competitive Senate races.

[Larry of the Lawn]

6 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

I feel like we went through the looking glass inside the looking glass. It's like...looking glassception, or something.

*slow clap*

[Gertrude]

I was just reading a story about Dana Loesch. She said that Bothan Jean (a man shot in his own apartment by an officer who thought it was hers) might still be alive if he'd been a licensed gun owner. Philandro Castile's mom called her on that bullshit.

I just can't.

 

[Darth Richard II]

2 hours ago, Gertrude said:

I was just reading a story about Dana Loesch. She said that Bothan Jean (a man shot in his own apartment by an officer who thought it was hers) might still be alive if he'd been a licensed gun owner. Philandro Castile's mom called her on that bullshit.

I just can't.

 

That’s...wow.

[Paladin of Ice]

7 hours ago, Bonnot OG said:

Justifiying his neo nazi retweets by saying they aren't nazis and saying the left are the real nazis because nazis were socialists. 

Meh, the part in bold is so old hat that I've come up with several standard responses, such as "Oh, they were socialist because the word is in their name? The same way that North Korea is a democratic republic, right?"

As for the other part, what else can you expect? We're not at the point where they can start Heiling away with most of society drawing back in revulsion, so of course paper thing denials have to be kept up for the sake of (im)plausible deniability.

[ThinkerX]

 

Too much getting overlooked.  Hence:

ICE goes full bandit:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/its-not-just-fema-ice-quietly-got-an-extra-dollar200-million/ar-BBNfK98?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=msnclassic

 

Alas, this behavior goes back to the Obama era.

 

----

 

And wasn't Mexico supposed to pay for the wall?  More unethical money diversions. PAYING Mexico to take illegal aliens.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-plans-to-pay-mexico-to-deport-unauthorized-immigrants-there/ar-BBNfUGc?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=msnclassic

 

----

 

Does make one wonder just why Trump is so attached to Russia.  Sanctions designed to be ineffective:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/white-house-order-on-election-meddling-has-no-teeth-officials-say/ar-BBNf4sG?ocid=msnclassic

 

Democratic Party wins the house, this sort of stuff could bite Team Trump big time.

 

 

[Matrim Fox Cauthon]

21 hours ago, Fez said:

Virginia is mostly Democratic statewide, but its Republican districts to the south that are most likely to get hit by Florence. And North Carolina is a mostly Republican state with a Democratic governor, filled with Representatives like Mark Meadows. South Carolina, beyond just being Republican, has a Governor who was one of the first to endorse Trump (not that that necessarily means anything, look at Sessions).

Trump screws over his own voters in countless unseen (by them) ways, but he does like making big public showings of support for them; usually, but not always, via corruption (like those subsidies to some of farmers hit by tariffs). Puerto Rico wasn't his voters, Houston wasn't his voters, this is his voters.

Also, he owns a golf course in Charlotte.

Mark Meadows is my representative, and he basically represents a district in the mountains which will not be hit much. Can't say that Trump's Charlotte golf course will be effected too much either apart from maybe some flooding and rains. Many of the areas that will be hit hardest by Florence are in the Cotton Belt and vote Democrat. (And the environmental disaster that is Eastern NC hog farms.) Florence is gonna DEEP HURT North Carolina's "Blue Wave" vote a lot, especially if these people are still rebuilding around election time. 

[Paladin of Ice]

Primary day for New York's state races. One thing I hope any NY posters or reader do is vote out IDC members if you live in their districts. (The IDC is a breakaway group of Democrats who have been caucusing with Republicans in the state senate, and it's been obvious all along the motivation has been just for the prime seats, pay raises, and perks that Republicans will throw them in order to retain control of the state senate.)

The group is supposedly going to come back to the fold now, but they've said that before and left Democrats high and dry afterwards. The fact that they're continuing to illegally fund through a PAC supposed to be set up for a 3rd party, (but which was chaired until recently by the head of the IDC and only ever seems to pay out to IDC members) shows that their corruption is certainly still in place, and that they're likely to remain a separate group.

Here's who the IDC members are, what district they represent, and who is challenging them on the ballot:

DISTRICT	IDC INCUMBENT	CHALLENGER
Senate District 11	Tony Avella	John Liu
Senate District 13	José Peralta	Jessica Ramos
Senate District 17	Simcha Felder*	Blake Morris
Senate District 20	Jesse Hamilton	Zellnor Myrie
Senate District 23	Diane Savino	Jasmine Robinson
Senate District 31	Marisol Alcantara	Robert Jackson
Senate District 34	Jeff Klein	Alessandra Biaggi
Senate District 38	David Carlucci	Julie Goldberg
Senate District 53	David Valesky	Rachel May

*Note: Felder is not actually with the IDC, but he is a Democrat who has been caucusing with Republicans separately.

Lets do our best to kick their asses right out office, change the direction of the state party, and clean up some of Albany's notoriously corrupt culture.

[Mexal]

November 6th cannot come soon enough.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dm-blWEUwAASlLq.jpg

[aceluby]

$895 deficit this year largely due to the ridiculous top-down Trump tax cuts, and the first trillion dollar deficit projected for next year.

So much for fiscal responsibility or 'growth will pay for the cuts' garbage.

[polishgenius]

24 minutes ago, Mexal said:

November 6th cannot come soon enough.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dm-blWEUwAASlLq.jpg

If Trump had been in office during Sandy Hook, he'd be a Truther.

[Mexal]

There is also this.

 

[aceluby]

31 minutes ago, Mexal said:

There is also this.

 

Couldn't that end up biting him in the ass, since I assume he has also broken some state laws in the process and it'd be near impossible to plead innocence when you've already plead guilty at the federal level?

[Maithanet]

21 minutes ago, aceluby said:

Couldn't that end up biting him in the ass, since I assume he has also broken some state laws in the process and it'd be near impossible to plead innocence when you've already plead guilty at the federal level?

Yes, a pardon for Manafort would solve some problems and create others.  But considering he's looking at the rest of his life in federal prison without a pardon, I'm pretty sure he'd still jump at the chance.  And he's doing everything he can to avoid pissing off Trump and eliminating that possibility. 

[aceluby]

3 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

Yes, a pardon for Manafort would solve some problems and create others.  But considering he's looking at the rest of his life in federal prison without a pardon, I'm pretty sure he'd still jump at the chance.  And he's doing everything he can to avoid pissing off Trump and eliminating that possibility. 

Yeah, it makes sense to take guaranteed life in federal prison off the table with the chance you won't instead have to spend life in the state pen.

[Martell Spy]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/rick-scott-plans-to-pack-the-florida-supreme-court-after-his-term-ends.html

Rick Scott Is Preparing to Pack the State Supreme Court After His Term Ends

This will end badly.

Quote

On Jan. 8, 2019, a new governor of Florida will be sworn in. On that same day, three of the Florida Supreme Court’s seven justices will complete their final terms. Based on those facts alone, you might assume that the new Florida governor will have the opportunity to select these justices’ replacements. That, however, is not at all clear—because current Republican Gov. Rick Scott has declared his intent to replace them hours before his term concludes. He is now moving forward with this plan to pack the court. And the only people who can stop him are the current justices themselves

.

[Martell Spy]

Trump’s FEMA chief under investigation over use of official cars

The lead disaster official for Hurricane Florence recently clashed with his boss, Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, over travel home to North Carolina.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/13/trump-fema-administrator-under-investigation-821231

Quote

 

FEMA administrator Brock Long is the target of an ongoing Department of Homeland Security inspector general investigation into whether he misused government vehicles during his commutes to North Carolina from Washington, according to three people familiar with the matter, including current and former administration officials.

The actions by Long, the U.S. government’s lead disaster official as the country braces for Hurricane Florence, have been called into question by the inspector general over whether taxpayers have inappropriately footed the bill for his travel, an issue that has tripped up a number of current and former top Trump administration officials.

 

[argonak]

2 hours ago, aceluby said:

$895 deficit this year largely due to the ridiculous top-down Trump tax cuts, and the first trillion dollar deficit projected for next year.

So much for fiscal responsibility or 'growth will pay for the cuts' garbage.

Republicans always blow the budget up when they get control.  And they do it in the most corrupt self rewarding ways possible.  I used to be a fiscal conservative, it was my major issue years ago.  And then I saw how little Bush 2 and his republican cronies really cared about it, not at all.  

Republicans use "fiscal conservatism" as codeword for "cutting social policies that help the poor."

But mark my words, as soon as they lose power to the democrats, suddenly republicans will care about the budget again, and they'll shout about how we have to cut social security, medicare, and all the shit that actually helps people.  But don't touch all that money flowing to military industrial contracts of course.

[Morpheus]

Paul Ryan says there is no reason to dispute the PR death toll as Trump did, also says there is no one to blame because what are you gonna do when a storm hits an island.